Cal State Northridge basketball team members react as to their bracket
placement in the 2009 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament is
announced on television. #15 seed CSUN will face #2 seed Memphis in
the first round of NCAA West Region play at the Sprint Center in
Kansas City, Mo.

Willie Galick felt a sense of relief when he saw Cal State Northridge’s name pop up after Memphis on the NCAATournament selection show Sunday.

Galick and his teammates were jumping up and down so passionately at the Pub Sports Grill on campus that they surely didn’t hear CBS announcer Greg Gumbel say afterward: “and you guys get Memphis. Celebration for the time being at Cal State.”

You could hear the good-luck-with-that-one in his voice.

The No. 15-seeded Matadors, whowere crowned Big West Tournament champions just before midnight Saturday to get their first NCAA berth since 2001, must devise a plan to dethrone second-seeded Memphis – a team that hasn’t lost in nearly three months and is riding a 25-game win streak.

A team that arguably should’ve been given a No. 1 seed. A team that lost to Kansas in the NCAA Tournament championship game last year.

And yet, Galick, a 6-foot-8 forward, felt a sense of calm.

He knows Memphis well. Very well. Probably just as well as Memphis knows Memphis.

Galick played under Vance Walberg at Pepperdine in 2006-07 before transferring to CSUN. Walberg is credited with inventing the system that John Calipari runs at Memphis.

Galick lived it for one year. Walberg never stopped running it en route to an 8-23 season. Despite several injuries, Pepperdine ran the full-court press from start to finish. Galick knows how frustrating it is to learn it and run it, and he knows how frustrating it will be to stop it.

Galick remembers the Memphis coaching staff soaking it all in on the sideline.

“I know they used to watch us practice,” he said. “Everybody’s saying it’s Vance’s system, but they don’t do everything Vance did. We pressured the whole game. They don’t.”

A mid-major school taught a major Division I program a few tricks.

And now, Galick is the teacher.

When CSUN prepared to play Pepperdine last season, Galick – who sat out because of the transfer – provided a good scouting report. He did so again this year. He’ll probably do so again today.

“They came to me and asked about the system,” Galick said. “There’s a lot of back doors. I did that every day in practice. I kind of know what to do to stop it.”

Knowing what to do is a start. Executing against an athletic Memphis team that boasts big Robert Dozier, Antonio Anderson and freshman Tyreke Evans will be a difficult task.

When Walberg landed the job at Pepperdine, he didn’t have his recruits to run his system, and it didn’t work. Walberg resigned midway through the next season.

“We didn’t have the players and time in that system to excel at it,” Galick said. “At the start, we couldn’t put a full game together. By the end we were getting better at it, but we were already frustrated because of the losses.

“Memphis is into its third year running it. They’re getting better. They’re players are coming into it, and they’re able to execute.”

CSUN has a couple of things in its favor: Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts left for the NBA last year.

And Memphis’ ego is bruised. While CSUN players hopped to their feet, the Tigers remained seated and responded to their No. 2 seed with a polite golf clap. Both reactions were aired lived on CBS.

Galick has one up on CSUN coach Bobby Braswell, who hasn’t seen Memphis yet this year. Braswell’s assistant coaches already called UCLA after the selection show and were scheduled to call Tim Floyd at USC to start compiling game tapes of Memphis.

CSUN doesn’t have a full-time staffer who TIVO’s college basketball games around the clock.

Braswell and his staff were ready to start dissecting film Sunday night.

“I’m sure Memphis will have a chip on its shoulder since (it) thought it would be a No. 1 seed,” Braswell said. “We’ll just do what we have to do.”

If Braswell listened to CSUN guard Mark Hill, a transfer from Tulsa, he would’ve gotten a jump start on Memphis preparations.

Hill predicted the correct seedings and matchup. And at Tulsa, Hill played Memphis as part of Conference USA.

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